To T. H. Farrer 20 October 1880
Down, | Beckenham, Kent (Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.)
Oct 20th 1880
My dear Farrer
What a man you are to do thoroughily whatever you undertake to do! The supply of specimens has been magnificent, & I have worked at them for a day & a half.1 I found a very few well rounded grains of brick in the castings from over gravel walk, & plenty over the hole in field & over Roman floor. You have done me the greatest possible service by making me more cautious than I shd. otherwise have been, viz by sending me the rubbish from the road itself; in this rubbish I find very many particles, rounded (I suppose) by having been crushed, angles knocked off, & somewhat rolled about. But not a few of the particles may have passed through the bodies of worms during the years since the road was laid down.— I still think that the fragments are ground in the gizzards of worms, which always contain bits of stone; but I must try & get more evidence. I have today started a pot with worms in very fine soil, with sharp fragments of hard tiles laid on the surface, & hope to see in the course of time whether any of these become rounded.2 I do not think that more specimens from Abinger would aid me.
With hearty thanks for all your most kind assistance, I am | My dear Farrer | Yours sincerely | Charles Darwin
Eliz. Wedgwoods progress is, I fear, decidedly downwards, but she had a rather better night.—3 She suffers greatly from extreme restlessness & short-breathing. Her life, I think, is a misery to her.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Earthworms: The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms: with observations on their habits. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1881.
Summary
Has started experiment to see whether particles of stone become rounded in the gizzards of worms.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-12766
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Thomas Henry Farrer, 1st baronet and 1st Baron Farrer
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Linnean Society of London (LS Ms 299/31)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12766,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12766.xml